Minnesotans pull together

Recently, while shopping at Cub Foods, I noticed shelves being stocked in the afternoon rather than the evening. The store was clearly short-staffed; the manager himself was stocking shelves. It was a symptom of something much more sinister.

Since mid-December, Donald Trump’s Operation Metro Surge has placed up to 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers on the streets of my city, Minneapolis, and across Minnesota. These agents present themselves as militia: fatigues, masks, visible weapons, ballistic vests and a “take no prisoners” demeanour. To say my neighbourhood (and many others) were on edge is an understatement. Officially, these officers were meant to detain and deport “the most dangerous criminals.”

ICE actions over the past two months – liberally using pepper spray and tear gas on observers and protesters and snatching people off the streets – have produced fear and trauma. Immigrants, including some with citizenship or permanent resident status, stopped going to work for fear of detention, thereby losing income. Small businesses owned by immigrants from Mexico, Ecuador and Somalia closed because employees were too afraid to come in, and customers were too afraid to shop.

There have been cases of immigrant citizens being accosted and detained by ICE, only to be released hours or days later with no explanation. At a Target store in a Minneapolis suburb, an employee with U.S. citizenship was tackled and taken away. Four ICE agents carried him out, each holding a limb, while he yelled that he was a citizen.

The federal government’s Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, located next to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, serves as ICE headquarters and is used for detention. Here is one account of a detainee as reported in the Minnesota Star Tribune:

“The young Muslim woman was shackled at the ankles. For 24 hours, she was locked inside a bathroom with three men at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, she said. They were given no bedding or pillows. Meals consisted of one sandwich a day […] Holding facilities were so crowded that immigrants in one cell had to take turns lying down because there was no space […] Basic human needs like food and medical care were sometimes denied. ‘There was no humanity,’ the woman who was locked in a bathroom said through a translator. The sink faucet did not work, but the single toilet did. When the men pulled down their pants to use it, the woman hid her face.”

There has been no transparency about who is detained, and no accountability for conditions. Habeas corpus and due process – foundational to American democracy – are no longer treated as standard procedure.

How did we get here?

In December, while launching Operation Metro Surge, Donald Trump told Americans that Minnesota congress member Ilhan Omar is “garbage. Her friends are garbage.” He continued, “When they come from hell, and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.” Somalia “stinks, and we don’t want them in our country.”

This rhetoric does not exist in isolation. It sits alongside policy promises – especially mass immigrant deportation – that carry real-world consequences.

The 2024 Republican Party Platform states, “America is now rocked by raging inflation, open borders, rampant crime, attacks on our children and global conflict, chaos and instability.” One upshot of this is that “[W]e must deport the millions of illegal migrants who Joe Biden has deliberately encouraged to invade our country. We will start by prioritizing the most dangerous criminals and working with local police.”

Deporting millions is a monumental task, likely not even accomplishable in four years. And in the case of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Trump’s ire is raised for several reasons. First, the Twin Cities are “sanctuary cities.” This means local ordinances restrict police from cooperating with ICE and CBP. Second, our governor, Tim Walz, was Kamala Harris’s Democratic vice presidential running mate. Trump has disdain for both of them. Third, Trump has indicated that he personally dislikes Representative Ilhan Omar. And finally, Trump named the 250 million dollar pandemic-era fraud scheme in Minnesota that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program. Other than the executive director of Feeding Our Children, it appears that those convicted of fraud were Somali-American. Trump – who is known for his strong narcissistic tendencies and appetite for retribution – put Minnesota, and the Twin Cities in particular, in his crosshairs.

Recent history

I have lived for 33 years in a lower-income neighbourhood of Minneapolis. Over that time, within five blocks of our home, I estimate there have been 120 civilian murders. I have witnessed police brutality and know of cases where police officers killed suspects – most prominently the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.

When police are involved, tensions rise. Yet the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by ICE and CBP officers are a step beyond the typical police-on-civilian violence, where a civilian often brandishes or uses a weapon. When Alex Pretti was shot and killed by two CBP officers, ten shots were fired. At least five shots came after the officers had stood up and backed away from Pretti as he lay dying. Americans know the phrases “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and “with liberty and justice for all.” With that in mind, watching video footage of both homicides jolts the psyche.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey went live on camera to call for calm. After all, the city still remembers the burning and looting along Lake Street after Floyd’s killing. Thankfully, no civilian riots or rebellions followed. Instead, there was lots of “good,” including protests.

Where I see hope

I thank God for common grace and common good. Churches set up food-shelf drives and began shopping for immigrants too afraid to leave home. On January 23, in -23 degree weather, 50,000 people marched peacefully in Minneapolis to protest ICE tactics.

Civilians organized creative and courageous acts of resistance: blowing whistles when ICE appeared as a warning; honking car horns and following ICE vehicles; recording ICE and CBP activity on video; forming an “SOS” on the frozen Lake Bde Maka Ska large enough to be seen by airplane passengers; buying and delivering groceries to households too afraid to set foot in public; and lighting candles on the steps of homes on Saturday nights. Sixty local corporations signed a letter calling for “an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.” Faith leaders knelt in protest at the airport. (They were arrested, but later released.) Both the governor and Minneapolis mayor have issued strong words in protest, and the state Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the federal government.
As of February 5, the number of ICE and CPB agents in Minnesota has been reduced. For now, there seems to be some quiet. However, Border Czar Tom Homan stated, “Let me be clear, President Trump fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country. President Trump made a promise. And we have not directed otherwise.”

I am a Christian committed to upholding the human dignity of all people. I am deeply troubled by the evidence that ICE officers are using racial profiling to make arrests, the lack of transparency and accountability, and the retribution conducted by President Trump and his cabinet. I am not optimistic that profiling and thuggery will cease or that proper warrants, habeas corpus and due process will rule ICE actions for the duration of the Trump administration. The trauma will not easily be healed, if at all. I, like many Minnesotans, just want transparency, accountability, peacefulness and justice. Until then, we know ice is slippery. We’ll bring the salt.